First time shooting tennis

Got my rental Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 today, went to the local hs to shoot some tennis just to get used to the lens. I think I should have used a faster shutter speed on all of these, but some of them turned ok. I think they are all a bit soft. Tips, critique, anything to help me improve? Thanks!

1.

you might want to try shooting different types of shots, not just the serves.

mustve been quite dark to be at iso800. and yes i wouldve tried to get a higher shutter speed.

Yeah it was very overcast, had to get up to ISO 800 and f/2.8 just to keep the exposure right. I tried getting returns, but none of them really worked out. Will definitely try more next time.

i like #5, but I'm no expert on specifics

IMHO, go tighter, and it's a common problem with lower level tennis, multiple matches go on at the same time,

i suggest trying to find the angle to isloate only 1 court, shot further back down or go in tight. I feel that it makes the image cleaner.

Yeah, I guess I was trying to get the players entire body in the frame, which didnt work out the best. Will try your guys' suggestions next time.

I was sitting in the top row of the bleachers, I think next time I will sit ground level a few feet back from the net pole. Will try the 24-70mm f2.8 too.

the 24-70 is too wide i think, I had mine with me today, and I barely used it.

however, I think it would be nice to be able to use the 24-70 to shot the entire length of the tennis court, from up high.

I'm starting to realize that many beginner sports shooters, including myself always wants to try to include the ball... but I've and am slowly changing my opinion of getting the ball in the image. While capturing the ball is nice, but more often than not, the image becomes loose... IMO, so now, I want more of facial expressions and action shots, rather than ball shots.

Aaagogo wrote in post #5358487
I'm starting to realize that many beginner sports shooters, including myself always wants to try to include the ball... but I've and am slowly changing my opinion of getting the ball in the image. While capturing the ball is nice, but more often than not, the image becomes loose... IMO, so now, I want more of facial expressions and action shots, rather than ball shots.

Getting the ball in frame and being loose do not necessarily go hand in hand and you can get facial expressions AND the ball if your timing is good. Here are some samples (only to illustrate my points):

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That helps a ton, much appriciated. Definitely have a lot more to try next go around. What metering mode usually works best, center weight? I know to use AI Servo for sports. Thanks again.

i understand Dennis what you said, btw, I sent you a PM.

I'm not challenging you or anything, but I've realised that while this is a forum to learn and share, alot of members strive to get the ball on impact shot, and in the midst of being so happy on getting that ball on impact shot, the other factors are lost.

shooting tight is what I'm in the midst of learning, alot of beginners, including myself like to shot loose. When I first started, it just seems easier, LOL

It takes a lot of practise to capture what Dennis has captured, something similar to a member's post where he broke down the odds of capturing the baseball bat hitting the ball, it's the same when you go in tight, the odds of capturing a good shot falls exponentially. not only the odds of getting a good shot drops, tracking becomes more difficult and framing becomes even harder.

I shot this yesterday, this was from studying of images posted here, Dennis' included.

This was full out at 200mm and i just missed the focus by a hair... and it's as shot, uncropped

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Holy Crap Dennis. Im speechless. Those are such great photos.

wow, nice shots.

and yea, i never did find pictures of serves to be that interesting.

anyways here are a few of mine i took recently